The invention relates to a dragee-making drum having a partition wall for separating the block zone from the grey zone.
Dragee-making drums are known which are placed in a slanting position. As a rule, they are placed in the black zone and are separated from the grey zone by a partition wall. The "black zone" is the dirtiest production zone during the fabrication of medical preparations. The "grey zone", on the other hand, is the clean zone. Usually the conventional partition wall has in the area of the mouth of the dragee-making drum, that is to say, the opening thereof, an equally large recess. Thus, it is possible to operate (i.e., fill, empty, clean) the dragee-making drum from the grey zone. The necessarily dirty parts of the drive mechanism, which not only produce noise but also dirt and oil accumulation, are shielded from the grey zone by the partition wall. This partition wall thus has the purpose of preventing dust particles from these parts of the drive mechanism from penetrating into the grey zone, which must meet a certain degree of cleanness.
However, in the prior art the separation of the black zone from the grey zone by a partition wall is not completely leakproof. This is because the drum rim must be spaced sufficiently far from the partition wall. Sufficiently far, in this case, means that an adequate clearance must be provided for the unbalance motions of the dragee-making drum or of the drum rim, so that collision with the partition wall remains impossible. Therefore, a large air gap has heretofore been provided between the drum rim and the partition wall. Experience has shown that dirt penetrates from the black zone to the grey zone through this air gap.